Batboard

OK; I just lived through flashing 29 XTS5000 portables with the USB cable. In spite of all of the pissing and moaning about the USB cable; I LOVED IT! It did a firmware / securenet refresh in under four minutes, and cloned in about 5 seconds. Damn. No problems at all; albiet; I did only do 29 radios. I used a current model Toshiba laptop with XP Pro SP2. According to Motorola; if you meet that criteria; you should be good to go with the USB.

My question(s) are:

The SO has one XTL2500 mobile that I need to reprogram, and Motorola is giving me a PN for that programming cable. They have two XTL 5000 consolettes with MC 3000 remotes, and Motorola is giving me a different PN for that programming cable. They have one Astro Spectra PLUS consolette with MC 3000 remotes, and I haven't even asked about that, yet. The sherrif said that when they bought this equipment, he remembered them using a programming cable that looked like the business end of a Spectra KVL adapter. Does anyone know if you can use the same cable for all the above, and simply open the consolettes and program it - using the XTL2500 cable through the KVL port on the XTL consolettes? Has anyone had experience with this, that can possibly spare me the expense of buying three more cables to add to my already extensive corral of programming cables? Part numbers would be a plus, also.

Thanks in advance - unless you leave snide comments - and then; I will call upon the full powers of my on-call voodoo preistess to damn your eternal soul.

Jim

Yep, the USB cables are awesome...until you hit that first flash failure! Oh well, you didn't run into it...this time.

Yeah, the Astro Spectra Plus & XTL5000 consolettes use a serial ribless cable which has the regular Spectra mic style connector, and program through the front of the radio chassis. The XTL2500 uses the newer round connector, which isn't compatible at all with the others. You can get that one in serial ribless or USB.

Todd

Thanks, Todd! That'll save some time and money.

Actually, there are three cables. The two that Todd referred to and one that uses the new accessory connector on the back. Don't recall the p/n -- Motorola refers to this as a "data cable" -- but it (A) is mandatory for consolettes and (B) works on standalone XTLs with both types of control heads.

The consolettes do not program from the mike connector, and opening the case to get access to the radio's accessory connector (cannot use the consolette accessory connector) is a PITA. We have a stack of XTL5000 consolettes in a console, and so we bought one of these "data" cables for each radio, milled a small hole in the back of the plastic consolette case so as to be able to leave them permanently installed, and slinked them down to an access door to facilitate programming updates. As I recall (I don't do purchasing), the cable was something like $65, versus the $250 or so that M usually charges for programming cables.

I ordered the serial AS+ / XTL5K cable from M and it should be here any minute, depending on Fed Ex's schedule. $95.00 NSO. From what I was told by parts ID; it plugs into what I'd call the KVL port INSIDE the consolette on the interface board. PITA, for sure; but I only have three to do, and they're side by side, albiet; on top of a set of tall file cabinets in a closet. Yo! Ladder! Woo hoo!

As for the XTL2500; I ordered it too, in USB flavor, and it's on backorder. $45.00. Should ship on the 11th of July.Thankfully; I only have one of those to program (currently), so I don't feel so nausious about spending the $45.00. It's those $250.00 +/- cables that chew on my nerves...

Theanks for the info.

Jim

Yep. Got the programing cable this afternoon and ran by the sheriff's office... Popped open the faceless consolettes, and read away. Went in the KVL jack on both models and is RIBless. Still a 11 July ship date on the XTL2500 cable, though...